Hub IT Consulting

Hospice Bereavement Letter

Instructions

Background: It is a requirement for every hospice to send out bereavement letters to all survivors of a hospice patient. The letters need to be sent out at regular intervals after the date of death. The intervals are 1, 4, 7, 10, 12, and 13 months after death.

Reports Available: 8 custom reports have been created to satisfy the need for sending the letters. They will print the letters, provide a list of survivors who the letters were generated for, and will create a download file to create labels via Microsoft Wordâ.

How to print Bereavement Letters: (By Discharge Date Range)

· Load the letterhead into your laser jet printer.

· Sign into MEDITECH B/AR, and click the “Custom Reports Menu #2” button, then select the “Hospice Bereavement Letter Menu”. The reports are named “Bereavement Letter – X Month(s)”.

· Select the letter for the time frame you want to print (1, 4, 7, 10, 12, or 13 months).

· Enter the discharge date range for which you want to print the letters. Accept the defaults for the Discharge Status from and through prompts (NOTE: the discharge statuses are those that indicate the patient has expired).

· Hit <F12> or the checkmark, select the printer to print on, then click “OK”

How to print the Letter Recipient Report:

· Select the report named “Bereavement Letter Recipients With Count”. Run it for the EXACT same values you ran the letter for. This report will print the Survivor who received the letter, the patient they survived, and the patient’s account number. A grand total is also provided.

How to create the Bereavement Letter Labels:

· Select the report named “Bereavement Letter Label Download”. Run it for the EXACT same values you ran the letter for.

· At the PRINT screen, click “Download”, then enter the following destination: C:\LABELS\BERLAB.TXT. Answer “Yes” to the “File Already Exists…Overwrite?” message.

· Click “OK” at the “End Of Report” message.

· Open Microsoft Wordâ

· Create a new blank document (use the blank page on the toolbar, or select the File Menu, then New

· Select the TOOLS menu, then Mail Merge

· Click “Create”, “Mailing Labels”, then “Active Window”

· Click “Get Data”, “Open Data Source”

· Browse to the “LABELS” folder, and select the BERLAB.TXT file. **You may need to select “ALL FILES” at the “FILES OF TYPE” prompt at the bottom of the screen.

· At the “Field Delimiter” prompt, select the semi-colon “;”

· At the “Record Delimiter” prompt, select the colon “:”

· Click “Set Up Main Document”

· Select your label stock (ex: Avery 5160), then “OK”

· Insert the Merge Field – Enter each field on the screen in the following order:

Name

Addr1

Addr2

City

· Click “Merge”

· Select “PRINT”…..Make sure you load the label stock into the printer first.

· Close out all windows when printing is complete.